A/N: hey, I wanted to do a good old fashioned protective big brother Dean story with hurting Sam. Any feedback received is much appreciated, thank you for reading!
The sound of the Impala's engine purred as the Winchester's drove along a smooth road. They'd just left Chicago following a meeting with their dad and encountering Meg, who incidentally turned out to be a demon. The night sky was as black as the Chevy's paint job with traces of glimmering stars lining the dark surface.
"I don't know man, leaving dad like this, it doesn't feel right" Sam muttered. "It's not meant to Sam but if we'd stayed with him, all our lives would be in danger. We're all each other's weak spots, they know that and could use it against us" Dean replied, eyes never leaving the road.
"Well if that's the case, then what's the point of us sticking together?" Sam raised an interesting question to which Dean shook his head, knowing he couldn't find the right answer. "We just keep our heads down and get back to work. If dad needs our help, he'll call" Dean accelerated his car, hoping to find a motel quickly to avoid being followed.
A few miles down the way, a neon sign pointed out a motel which had vacancies. Dean turned in, finding a suitable parking space before offloading the boys' belongings. Sam grabbed his rucksack and headed straight in, leaving the door wide open for Dean to follow. The youngest Winchester threw his bag on the bed closest to the exit and walked towards the bathroom so he could clean up.
Sam shut the door behind him and glared into the mirror before him. He sighed deeply and threw cold water over his face. Ever since the Daēvas threw him across the room back in Chicago, his head had been like torture. He must've hit it pretty hard because when he recovered from the fall, he saw darkness across his vision which eventually faded but now and again he would see black spots at the corner of his eyes.
Sam wasn't worried too much about the injury until he was staring in the mirror and noticed that along with the droplets of water falling from his face, dark speckles of crimson began trickling down his nose and chin. He lightly touched the blood with his finger and examined closer under the fading bathroom light. He quickly reached for a piece of tissue paper and firmly pressed against is nostrils.
A couple of minutes later the sound of thumping on the bathroom door made Sam jump out of his skin. "Sam! Hurry up, you've been in there for ages" Dean yelled from the main motel room. Sam walked back towards the mirror and lifted the tissue away from his nose, the bleeding had finally stopped, not without leaving a faint trail of red halfway down his face. "Hang on Dean, you can reapply your make-up in a second" Sam mocked, hoping not to raise alarm with Dean. He rinsed water over his face once again; removing the blood stains and threw the tissue in the toilet, flushing it as he opened the door.
"All yours" Sam smiled cockily. "Jeez, what the hell were you doing in there?" Dean rose from the bed he was sitting on. "What you usually do in a toilet, jerk" Sam walked towards his bag and dug through until he found some painkillers. "Bitch" Dean replied, slamming the bathroom door behind him. Once Dean was out of sight, Sam revealed two tablets and downed them quickly, hoping that would stifle the pain.
It was around four in the morning when Sam suddenly woke up with agonizing pain emitting from his head. He'd managed to get two hours sleep thanks to the pills but they must've worn off. He sat upright, beads of cold sweat rolling off his forehead and breathing heavily. He looked to his right and noticed Dean was still sleeping to which he felt instantly relived, the last thing he wanted was a worried big brother on his hands.
Sam slowly regained his natural breathing rhythm but the pain was still unbearable. He reached into his bag once again and pulled out three tablets, swallowing them with his bottle of water that was also kept in the backpack.
After five minutes of Sam clutching his head like it was being stabbed repeatedly, the pain faded again allowing him to get another couple of hours rest. The medication he had was seriously strong stuff that Dean had stashed from a doctor's medicine cabinet weeks ago for emergency use only.
When Sam woke up again dawn light was streaming through the tattered curtains. He opened his heavy eyelids, feeling extremely sluggish thanks to the pills. The door to the motel swung open and instinctively reached for his .45 under his pillow but it turned out to be Dean. "Rise and shine Sammy. Got some coffee and breakfast" Dean lifted his hand which had a paper bag, the other with two Styrofoam cups.
Sam groaned and reluctantly heaved himself out of bed, swinging his sore legs over the side, placing them on the retro-styled carpet. The eldest brother handed Sam a cup and placed the remaining food contents on the small round table. Dean removed his waxed jacket resting it on the back of the metal chair.
Sam took a swig of the caffeine hoping it would wake him up, "so what's our next move? Wait for dad to call us? Maybe we should give him a ring". "Why?" Dean frowned as he sat at the table, removing a circular-wrapped object, most likely a bacon roll. "What d'you mean 'why'? So we can help with the demon hunt, obviously" Sam wasn't in the mood to be shouted down, not when it came down to hunting down the thing that killed Jess. Dean exhaled as he finished unwrapping his roll and took a large bite of the greasy food.
"Dean?!" Sam called out, feeling irritation rise up inside him. "What?" Dean answered, mouth full of food. "Answer me; should we call dad?" Sam stood up, walking towards his brother, washing a hand over his face. "We're not calling dad. Don't you remember yesterday at all? If we start working together, it could put all of us and the investigation in danger" Dean clarified. "Yeah I get that but what are we supposed to do now? I need justice for Jess' death" Sam towered over his older brother.
"Look man can you, like, move, I'm trying to eat and if you had any sense you'd do the same" Dean took another bite. Sam backed away slightly, "Dean, can you just answer me dammit, what's our next move?" he folded his arms across his chest. "I dunno, find a job nearby maybe" Dean took a sip from his coffee.
"You're unbelievable, we finally meet up with dad after months of hearing nothing from him then he tells us to split up again, not knowing what's going to happen and you just wanna carry on like nothing's happened. Well…maybe – maybe I should" Sam started, "should what? Walk out again? Go find dad yourself like back at Indiana? Yeah well that wouldn't surprise me" Dean interrupted and rubbed his hands together, getting rid of any excess crumbs.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam picked up on his brother's tone, clearly he wasn't just referring to Indiana, "I want to find Jess and mom's killer, alright?" Sam gritted his teeth. "Oh, so what, I don't, is that it? You think I don't wanna find that demon? I've been looking for this thing since I was four years old and haven't stopped once but you, you took four years out, abandoning your family to live a life away from me and dad, not even bothered about looking for the demon then suddenly you're all about finding it? What's that about?" Dean stood up to meet Sam's eye line, range seething through his veins.
The pain Sam previously felt in his head had returned and arguing with his brother like this made things worse. "Jess died the exact same way as mom did, that's why I'm suddenly 'bothered' about finding this bastard. That's what it's all about. Don't you dare think for one second that while I was away I didn't spend every day wishing I could help what killed mom but I also wanted a normal life" Sam was screaming in Dean's face fighting the pain that was bubbling inside. "If that's the case, why didn't you at least contact me or dad? Hmm?" Dean felt so angry that he could burst a vein. "I ran away to get away from the life and dad, Dean, but I still thought about it every day" Sam's voice softened slightly.
"Yeah, he wasn't the only one you ran away from, though, is it?" Dean looked away, remembering the hurt from all those years ago. "Dean-" Sam felt immediately guilty for bringing everything up. "Just leave it alone, Sam" Dean turned his back, contemplating walking out and taking a drive. "Dean I didn't mean t-" "Sam just shut the hell up, I don't wanna talk about it" Dean rushed his hands through his hair.
"That's the problem, you never do wanna talk about it. You just bottle everything up" Sam muttered, regretting it as soon as he said it. "What? You're kidding, right? I've had to bottle it all up because for the past five or so years, you've been gone and all I had was dad. You didn't even contact me. I get why you walked away from dad, he can be…well dad, but you could've easily picked up the phone Sam. You're selfish, I meant what I said in Indiana, you are a selfish son of a bitch. Everything you've ever done is for yourself; Flagstaff, Stanford, Indiana and now this" Dean was facing his little brother once again, "so I'm sorry for 'bottling everything up' but it's only because you'll just probably walk out again, somewhere down the line". Dean picked up his jacket and headed for the door.
"Dean, wai-" Sam's head was severely pulsing but he grabbed Dean's shoulder to stop him walking out, walking away like Sam had done years before. Dean responded by swinging around, fist clenched and smacking the side of Sam's temple, all the force and rage had been building up into that one punch.
The pain of a million needles was jolting through Sam's head as he bounced back from the hit. Sam clutched his left temple and was forced to step a few inches behind him as it was that strong. Dean didn't think anything of it, gave Sam one last dirty look before walking out the door, slamming the plank of wood, making everything in the room vibrate.
Everything was tingling in Sam's mind. His vision was blackening around the edges with dots appearing as he was losing consciousness. The punch had caused a ripple effect in his head with the feeling of blood trickling down his chin. Sam attempted to lift his free arm and stop the bleeding but everything became fuzzy even his hearing was slowly disappearing. He was leaning against the cold hard wall before finally it was too much to continue, letting the darkness win, his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed as a heap on the floor.
Dean was driving along the roads as fast as he could handle. He still felt pissed off with Sam and the conversation they'd just had. But there was still a part of him that felt guilty for hitting his little brother so hard. Even in the midst of their argument, Sam had good points, what were the Winchester's going to do now? Their father had gone, no leads on the demon that killed Jess and his mom, hell Dean didn't even know where to start looking. No idea what the demon looks like, Meg was their only clue and she's dead.
Dean had been driving for about twenty minutes before he realised he was running low on gas. He contemplated filling up and carry on driving but he thought he should go back to Sam then they could leave this small town for good.
The eldest brother turned in to the parking lot of the motel. Different thoughts were swimming through his mind; maybe Sam went for a walk to clear his mind, maybe he was putting ice on his face, maybe he was doing research, maybe he was trying to call dad or maybe he was preparing for round two with his self-righteous-ass of a brother.
Dean slammed the car door shut and walked slowly towards the motel door. He didn't want to argue anymore, he was tired. He twisted the metal doorknob and pushed it inward. He half expected Sam sat at the table with a disgusted look on his face but the sight that greeted him instead made his stomach sink.
His baby brother was lying unconscious on the floor with blood dripping from his face. A horrifying pale was painted across Sam. Dean ran towards him, crouching on the floor, desperate to find a pulse, assuming the worse. "Sam!" Dean managed to locate a pulse, it was weak and his breathing was shallow but that was good enough for him. "Sammy, wake up!" Dean pulled his brother by the collar until he was sat upright.
The eldest Winchester felt sick at the lack of response from his brother. "Sam, come on, wake up!" Dean's eyes began filling with tears but he fought them back. "Sammy, please, dammit this is all my fault" Dean stared at his younger brother, hoping he'd wake up
But there was nothing. Just deafening silence.
TBC…